The Global Drought Outlook is part of a substantial body of OECD work on climate change adaptation. This stream of work supports countries in navigating complex and rapidly-evolving scientific knowledge on climate change and translating it into actionable insights for policy makers. It also aims to identify the organisational and structural measures needed to strengthen climate resilience. This report follows earlier OECD studies on specific climate risks, including sea-level rise and extreme wildfires.
The Global Drought Outlook provides a global assessment of drought risks, impacts, and policy responses in the context of climate change. It distils recent scientific insights on how climate change amplifies drought impacts and presents new OECD estimates of their economic toll, including their ripple effects across value chains. Given the considerable warming already locked into the Earth’s climate system, the increasing trend in drought occurrence is unlikely to reverse in the near future. Importantly, the report shows that water management alone is not sufficient. Building drought resilience requires all sectors to rethink their water use and contribute to restoring water supply capacity under changing climatic conditions.
This report was developed by the OECD Environment Directorate directed by Jo Tyndall. It was authored by Marta Arbinolo, Ioannis Tikoudis, and Simon Touboul, under the guidance of Walid Oueslati, Head of the Climate, Biodiversity and Water Division, and Catherine Gamper, Climate Adaptation Team Leader. It benefitted from valuable research support and contributions from Margaux Gabriel, Amélie Majnoni d’Intignano, Nicholas Poellinger, and Jiyul Shin. The authors are grateful for the input and feedback provided by OECD colleagues Alexandre Banquet, Marijn Kordenwal, Nicolina Lamhauge, Sophie Lavaud, Xavier Leflaive, Mikael Maës, Mikaela Rambali, Laura Smith, Lucy Watkinson, and Leigh Wolfrom. Administrative and communications support was provided by Sora Choi, Sama Al Taher Cucci, Beth Del Bourgo, and William Foster. The substantive review conducted by Michael Bruentrup (German Institute of Development and Sustainability), Benjamin Cook (NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University), Richard Damania (World Bank), Caroline King-Okumu (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), Yusuke Kuwayama (University of Maryland), Sergio Vicente-Serrano (Pyrenean Institute of Ecology), and Esha Zaveri (World Bank) is also gratefully acknowledged.
This report was developed under the oversight of the OECD Environment Policy Committee (EPOC) and benefitted from discussions held in the Working Parties on Climate Change (WPCC) and on Biodiversity, Water and Ecosystems (WPBWE).